PUZZLERIA!
SLICES: OVER 53 SERVED
Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!, the first of four in February.
We don’t want to turn this into a McBlog
but, until someone gets “fed up” with it, we will begin this week posting a running
count of how many puzzle slices we have served up on our puzzle menu so far. We will periodically update the running total which now, as you can see, stands at more than 53.
We haven’t even hit the million mark yet, though we have hit a hundred. Someday we hope to hit “billions & billions” served (as many McDonald's signs boast nowadays), and then hire Carl Sagan to do a commercial for us.
That Sagan clip is about as close as we
get to science around these parts. If it is real science you crave, head on
over to the PEOTS blog posted weekly by Word Woman, who often comments on
Puzzleria!
This week, however, I posted a comment
on PEOTS that sent the blog off on a slight pop-cultural tangent. It included a link
to a video clip of the Cowsills (not to be confused with pot-smoking (?) Window Boys) performing their version of “Hair.”
The Cowsills were a family band formed in the 1960s. (They were the Partridge Family before the Partridge Family became the Partridge Family.) Talent galore. I was a fan of Billy’s (R.I.P.) later work with the Blue Shadows (country music as it once was) and Susan’s work with the Continental Drifters.
Thanks to ron for posting the “Palinmorse”
link to the Futility Closet website in last week’s Comment section of
Puzzleria! A blog worth bookmarking is Futility Closet. Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan, and others, might be interested in Hossein Behferooz’s “versatile” magic square.
Last week’s puzzle slices proved to be
tougher to chew on that we thought they would be when we baked them up. The Big
Game Slice number sequence, for example. To perhaps clarify, consider the chart
below of the first 110 Roman numerals:
I
II III IV
V VI VII
VIII IX X
XI
XII XIII XIV
XV XVI XVII
XVIII XIX XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX
XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL
XLI XLII XLIII XLIV XLV XLVI XLVII XLIII XLIX L
LI LII LIII LIV LV LVI LVII LVIII LIX LX
LXI LXII LXIII LXIV LXV LXVI LXVII LXVIII LXIX LXX
LXXI LXXII LXXIII LXXIV LXXV LXXVI LXXVII LXXVIII LXXIX LXXX
LXXXI LXXXII LXXXIII LXXXIV LXXXV LXXXVI LXXXVII LXXXVIII LXXXIX XC
XCI XCII XCIII XCIV XCV XCVI XCVII XCVIII XCIX C
CI CII CIII CIV CV CVI CVII CVIII CIX CX
Each numeral in red consists of letters in alphabetical order. Alphabetical order does not really pertain to the homogeneous numerals in green. All other numerals are in alphabetical disorder.
Roughly fifty days after I created it, Will Shortz broadcast a shorter (of course!) version of my puzzle during his NPR Weekend Edition Sunday segment. (I had not submitted my version to him. It was just a coincidence.)
I took mental note of the similarity between our puzzles, but did not banish my version from my files. After I launched this blog, every week as I surveyed the material in my “puzzles not yet used” file, I would consider but pass over this “déjà vu” puzzle. I am springing it on you Puzzlerians! this week because 1. I am getting weary of seeing it each week in my files, and
2. I believe my other two puzzle slices on the menu might prove to be rather challenging, so this easier puzzle should provide a refreshing contrast.
Enjoy!
Menu
Draw-in’ A Blank Slice:
Philip VIII
Name the next word in the following sequence:
lie, hammer, you, curt, cruller, golly, coffee, ____
Explain your answer.
Specialty Of The House Slice:
Deja Vu Slice:
Name a place on the world map and an object associated with that place. Together they contain the five vowels (A, E, I, O, U but not Y in this case) exactly once.
Place the object after the place name and remove from this abutted result the ultimate, penultimate and antepenultimate syllables from the very end of a popular children’s song.
Explain your answer.
Specialty Of The House Slice:
Haberdash!
Name a common sight on runways, an eight-letter word. Divide it to form two new words, each pronounced differently from how they were pronounced as syllables in the original word.
Replace the first new word with a homophone, keeping the spelling of the second new word as it is. The result is a possible purchase from a haberdashery. What are these words?
Deja Vu Slice:
Festivity, activity, objectivity
Name a place on the world map and an object associated with that place. Together they contain the five vowels (A, E, I, O, U but not Y in this case) exactly once. Place the object after the place name and remove from this abutted result the ultimate, penultimate and antepenultimate syllables from the very end of a popular children’s song.
Rearrange the remaining letters to form an activity associated with the place. Remove three letters from that activity and rearrange them, using one of them twice, to form a four-letter festivity associated with the place. What are these words?
Every Friday at
Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number
puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to
cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)
Every Friday at
Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number
puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to
cravers of scrumptious puzzles!Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)
Please post
your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not
give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on
Tuesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We
serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly
puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank
you.
When you say runways, do you mean airplane or fashion or both?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out to PEOTS, Lego.
Happy Friday from 73 degree Denver.
Either one or the other.
DeleteYou're welcome.
I'm green with envy and blue with frostbite. We might climb to 37 degrees Saturday,
LegoBraniffJetsWereFashionablyStylish
The DVS poisoned my brain cells. I haven't been able to get the others.
ReplyDeleteSorry 'bout that, David. Try rubbing dome syrup of ipecac onto your temples. Did you recall Will's terser version? I believe you will solve the other two.
DeleteLegoArsenicAndOldPuzzles
I take it that the place on the map isn't PARIS and that the object associated with it isn't the EURO!
ReplyDeleteron,
DeleteWell, maybe PARIS/EURO does work for the DVS, even though it isn’t my intended answer.
In medieval France (and elsewhere in Europe), monks adopted the practice of tonsure, cutting short or shaving hair at the top of their heads to symbolize purity of spirit. This tonsorial activity incorporated the notion of close-cropped or shaved (ras, in French) hair, and the ideal of pure (pur in French) monastic practice.
So, if you remove the stipulated three syllables from PARIS + EURO you can rearrange the remainder to form the French words RAS and PUR, two words that define the essence of monastic activity.
Next, from RAS + PUR, remove the U, double the A and rearrange the letters to form “ARS ARP.” I may be mistaken (indeed, I am mistaken!), but I imagine ARS ARP to be an annual festival honoring the life and work of German-French artist and Renaissance man Jean (Hans) Arp. It ought to be celebrated annually on Sept. 16, Arp’s anniversaire (anniversary of the day he was born, a much more accurate word than our English “birthday”!), in the Alsace Lorraine region of France, Arp’s lieu de naissance (or “birthplace” to us Englishers).
Ergo, congrats ron!
(Disregard the following paragraphs if you are fed up (ras le bol in French) with my carrying on about my late cat, Noosie.)
Sadly, “lieu de naissance” reminds me of my tabby cat, Noosie (formally named Nuisance) who died five months ago. I grieve her still.
Noosie’s lieu de naissance was somewhere in the north woods of Wisconsin. The “lieux de Nuisance,” however, were many. She was my pal on my lap. She perched on my windowsills (not to be confused with Cowsills) watching the world (and squirrels and plants and birds and rocks and things, and the rain, the park and other things) go by outside. She slept on various couches, cushions, quilts and blankets in my home. She also slept on my bed (her penultimate final resting place) with or without me. Her ultimate final resting place is in a grave just outside her favorite world-watching window.
(When I, and almost everyone I know, first heard America's "Horse with No Name," we thought it was a song sung by Neil Young.)
(Compare the "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" clip with the two Blue Shadows clips in this week's Puzzleria! preamble. Billy Cowsill sings lead in all three.)
LegoFelonely
Thinking about you and Noosie, Lego.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Word Woman.
DeleteI confess to having a history of getting overly attached to God's quaduped creatures... which, upon further reflection, may not be such a bad thing because I also have a history of not relating all that well to bipeds. (The link is a song that relates to not relating all that well, but it is a gorgeous and harmoniously graceful melding of melody and lyric.)
I have comforted myself lately with the notion that my parents somehow "reached down" from heaven and, in my absence, were petting and comforting Noosie during her last hours, and then welcoming her into heaven.
LegoPersuadedThatYouGottaBelieveInAMaizieGrace
I like Will Shortz’s NPR puzzle this week. Here it is:
ReplyDelete“Name someone who's the subject of many jokes; two words. Remove the space between the words. Insert the letters O and N in that order — not necessarily consecutively — inside this string of letters. The result, reading from left to right, will be two words of opposite meaning that this someone might say. Who is it, and what are the words?”
The wording is a bit unfair, though. Now, let me be clear. I am not in Will’s league as a puzzle master or puzzle editor. He has an academic degree in enigmatology for Pete’s sake, and is longtime editor of the NYT daily crossword puzzle, the standard for all others. I sincerely admire his brilliance, his track record and his ping… I mean, table tennis record.
That said, I would have reworded the first two sentences of this puzzle thusly:
“Name someone who's the subject of many jokes. Remove anything that is not a letter from this someone, including any spaces. …”
(There is one hint to Will's puzzle in this post.)
Respectfully,
Lego…
A hint for the Draw-in’ A Blank Slice (DABS):
ReplyDeleteThis woman just took her pet to the wrong restaurant. She should have instead patronized _ _ _ _.
LegoGamda
A hint for the SOTHS, Haberdash!:
ReplyDeleteThd second part of the "common sight on runways" sounds like something you'd see at football games or golf matches, or something you might see a woman do to her "big hair."
LegoAfro
Well, OK, if you're going to make it that easy, even I can get it. Billy Bigelow comes to mind.
DeletePaul,
DeleteSorry, I just do not know where to stop those doggone swinging pendulums I put into motion.
I recall serving a puzzle slice about a Broadway musical last July.
Carousel was a kind of R&H "sequel" to "Oklahoma." My "Carousel puzzle" was a kind of prequel to this Lighter Menu Slice in August.
I've always loved Carousel's title waltz.and this dire "sequel", as well as this bossy non-sequel.
Billy could be in Will's puzzle this week.
LegoJiggerCraigin
Regrettably I have only one solution to this week's “déjà vu” slices.
ReplyDeleteSOTHS:
BEAUTIES>>>BEAU + TIES>>>BOW TIES.
This seems to be a “déjà vu” of Will's TAE BO/BOW TIE puzzle of Jan. 12, 2014.
DVS:
Is this a “déjà vu” of Will's “split pea soup/hot turkey sandwich” puzzle of Apr. 6, 2014?
ron,
ReplyDeleteYes, although I had forgotten about it, the SOTHS does echo Will’s tae bo/bow tie puzzle a bit.
Will’s terser version of the DVS I had created 50 days earlier was this “dance” puzzle.
Alas, this turned out to be a kind of “Déjà vu” edition of Puzzleria! Sorry. Nothing worse than unfresh, warmed-over puzzle slices.
Here are this week’s official answers:
Draw-in’ A Blank Slice:
Philip VIII
Name the next word in the following sequence:
lie, hammer, you, curt, cruller, golly, coffee, ____
Explain your answer.
Answer: MOON (or BAN)
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth person to serve as secretary general of the United Nations. “Moon” or “ban” are English words that can be extracted from his name. Other secretaries general, in historical order, were:
Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjold, U Thant, Kurt Waldheim, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Kofi Annan, from which were extracted the following either exact or approximate English words: lie, hammer (alternative: “scold”), you, curt, cruller, golly and coffee.
In my hint, posted in the comments section, the woman should have brought her “therapy kangaroo" not to McDonald’s but to IHOP, The International House Of Pancakes.
Specialty Of The House Slice:
Haberdash!
Name a common sight on runways, an eight-letter word. Divide it to form two new words, each pronounced differently from how they were pronounced as syllables in the original word.
Replace the first new word with a homophone, keeping the spelling of the second new word as it is. The result is a possible purchase from a haberdashery. What are these words?
Answer:
BEAUTIES; BOWTIES (or BOW TIES)
(Beauties = beau + ties --> bow + ties)
In my hint, posted in the comments section:
The second part of the "common sight on runways" (beauties) sounds like something you'd see at football games or golf matches (tees), or something you might see a woman do to her "big hair" (tease).
Deja Vu Slice:
Festivity, activity, objectivity
Name a place on the world map and an object associated with that place. Together they contain the five vowels (A, E, I, O, U but not Y in this case) exactly once.
Place the object after the place name and remove from this abutted result the ultimate, penultimate and antepenultimate syllables from the very end of a popular children’s song.
Rearrange the remaining letters to form an activity associated with the place. Remove three letters from that activity and rearrange them, using one of them twice, to form a four-letter festivity associated with the place. What are these words?
Answer:
OAHU; LEI; HULA; LUAU
OAHU + LEI = OAHULEI
OAHULEI – EIO (the last three syllables in “old McDonald’s Farm,” which ends E-I-E-I-O) = AHUL --> HULA
HULA – H + U = ULAU --> LUAU
Lego…
How about KEY, from Ban Ki(key)-Moon?
DeleteRight you are, ron. And I suppose one might also argue for "bank" (BAN Ki-moon).
DeleteLegoBanKiKiMoon
I can't believe you are making us know something to answer the DABS.
ReplyDelete;-).
DeleteThere is a Kofi Annan honorary ping pong table at Macalester College. Not many U. N Secretaries General can say that!
;-).
DeleteThere is a Kofi Annan honorary ping pong table at Macalester College. Not many U. N Secretaries General can say that!
David,
DeleteI have learned never to underestimate the knowledge/intelligence of Puzzlerians!
Dr. Shortz,
I apologize for the doppleganger comments posted above by Word Woman. It is an "honorary table tennis table at Macalester College," I assume she meant to say. And, she repeated it twice, adding insult to the injury you must feel, then rubbed salt into that wound!
Word Woman,
Excellent post(s)! Keep up the good work.
LegoDingDongSingSongKingKongTableTennis
At Mac, it's ping pong:
Deletehttp://athletics.macalester.edu/news/2009/5/20/GEN_0520091429.aspx
Sorry about the double posting. Uncommanded posting seems to be moving around our blog trio.
Or quartet.
DeleteWith DABS I had tried to go in this direction: lie + hammer = Lillehammer, you + curt = yogurt, cruller + golly = crueler gully, coffee + ? = coffee mate (date)! No such luck.
ReplyDeleteron,
DeleteI love your puzzle-solving approaches. Who knows what might work with our goofy puzzles? Nothing one might try is too far-fetched.
I considered reversing the order of the DABS sequence, beginning with MOON, COFFEE, GOLLY ..., but I feared "MOON" might be a giveaway.
LegoCruellaDeLillehammer
I don't mean to be a critic, but I'm afraid I'm finding this "WornRibbonVintageSmithCorona" font very difficult to read.
ReplyDeleteThat's okay, Paul. Everybody's a critic!
DeleteWe welcome criticism on this blog, especially if it is constructive, and yours certainly falls into that category. Like U.S. Marines, we want to "be all that we can be." (Didn't Omelet say something like that? That is my question.)
I will work on your concern. I am not very good at going in and tinktering with Blogger's settings, but maybe there's a way of making the font "Bible Black," as King Crimson might put it, or bigger.
Whatever fix I might do, I want to be considerate of Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan's magic square contributions, which I regard as splendid.
LegoWarmPabstBlueRibbonVintageChateauLafiteRothschildSchmitt'sCorona